Vintage Photographs Of The Maharajas - Exhibition

About The Event

Vintage Photographs of the Maharajas - Exhibition.

About the Exhibition: The photographs in this exhibition are an evocation of princely India and a historical record of an age we will never again experience. Each portrait reflects an unmistakeable aura of majesty, effortlessly carried and eloquently captured. The photographic portrait is never truly opaque and behind the facade of splendid dress and gleaming jewels, we glimpse a rare human side to the sitters. As the historian E. Jaiwant Paul noted, 'The princes of India were undoubtedly one of the great anachronisms of the twentieth century. Among them were enlightened rulers and profligate princes, saints and scoundrels, heroes, charmers and eccentrics'. The Maharajas in these photographs, whose lineage can be traced back for centuries, mark the end of an epoch in India's history of ruling principalities. Besides the fabulous palaces, extraordinary jewels and inspired legends that these individuals left behind, we have their photographs, some of which are on display here.